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Methamorphoseos vulgare

March 7, 1501
Not on view
The first illustrated Italian edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses was published in Venice in 1497 and translated a Latin paraphrase of the fourteenth century. It had many reprintings, often, as in the case of this 1501 edition, with the same late fifteenth-century woodcuts.
This scene depicts the skilled metalworker Vulcan who, alerted by the all-seeing sun to his wife's infidelity, trapped Venus and Mars in an invisible metal net. Once the lovers were caught, Vulcan called the other Olympians to mock them. Mercury said he would gladly suffer embarrassment to trade places with Mars.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Methamorphoseos vulgare
  • Author: Ovid (Roman, Sulmo 43 BCE–17 CE Tomis, Moesia)
  • Translator: Giovanni Bonsignore (Italian, 14th century)
  • Printer: Christoforo de Pensa for Lucantonio Guinta
  • Publisher: Lucantonio Giunta (Italian, Florence 1457–1538 Venice) (Venice)
  • Printmaker: Cutting of blocks signed "ia" attributed to Jacob of Strasbourg (Italian School, born Alsace, active Venice, 1494–1530)
  • Designer: Design of some woodcuts attributed to Benedetto Bordone (Italian, Padua ca. 1455/60–1530 Padua, active mainly Venice from 1488)
  • Date: March 7, 1501
  • Medium: Printed book with woodcut illustrations
  • Dimensions: 11 3/4 × 8 1/8 × 7/8 in. (29.8 × 20.6 × 2.3 cm)
  • Classification: Books
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1922
  • Object Number: 22.16
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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